It’s Chlorophyll in Motion, writ large: in Godzilla’s most interestingly stylized franchise entry, the mean-tempered monster faces off with a colossal surrealist vision, a gene-spliced amalgam of a rose plant, high-vitamin Godzilla cells, and the genetic-spiritual essence of a scientist’s daughter. Director Kazuki Ômori’s frenetic thriller is all over the map, with industrial assassins, more fantasy weaponry and (very colorful!) nonsense science. “What you see is no ordinary plant!”  Criterion’s Curtis Tsui cultivates some fascinating extras.

Godzilla vs. Biollante 4K
4K Ultra HD + Blu-ray
The Criterion Collection 1254
1989 / Color / 1:85 widescreen / 104 min. / available through The Criterion Collection / Street Date March 18, 2025 / 39.95
Starring: Kunihiko Mitamura, Yoshiko Tanaka, Masanobu Takashima, Kôji Takahashi, Tôru Minegishi, Megumi Odaka, Toshiyuki Nagashima, Ryûnosuke Kaneda, Yasuko Sawaguchi.
Cinematography: Yudai Kato
Production Designer: Shigekazu Ikuno
Director of Special Effects: Koichi Kawakita
Film Editor: Michiko Ideda
Costume Design: Kenji Kawaskai
Music: Koichi Sugiyama, themes by Akira Ifukube
Written by Kazuki Ômori story by Shinichiro Kobayashi, Shin’ichi Sekizawa
Produced by Tomoyuki Tanaka
Directed by Kazuki Ômori

Godzilla was  originally conceived as a sober representation of the Atom bomb, but within a few years the franchise became entertainment for children. Along the way Godzilla picked up a full menagerie of fantastic playmates monster foes. As a little kid, I discovered Godzilla on TV around 1958, and saw his fights with  Anguiras,  King Kong and  Mothra on the big screen before I term-limited out on the franchise. Spy movies, westerns and Alfred Hitchcock took precedence. In college, a few glimpses of Godzilla’s Son showed me I wasn’t missing much.

In the ’80s Godzilla became more of a pop icon, with toys being sold in teen boutiques, etc.. Courtesy of fuzzy VHS tapes we also got our first look at some of the movies in their original form, in Japanese, which re-awakened interest. Then came a flat laserdisc of a funky title that hadn’t been given a U.S theatrical release, reportedly due to a tiff between Toho and Miramax. Godzilla vs. Biollante made its American debut on home video. Even in a highly compromised form, we could tell that somebody back in Tokyo was trying something different. Much of the show played as a cartoonish spy movie, with assassins stealing biotech samples. The human side of the story was rather preposterous, but also semi-serious. What got us was a big advance in design and direction. The battles were far more frenetic and intense. The new monster foe for Godzilla was an artistic masterpiece, presented in a style that can only be called ‘kaiju-poetic.’

We’ll not try for a detailed synopsis … it would be a real headache-generator. Aggressive government and corporate entities around the world are vying for dominance in the bioengineering field. Scientist Shiragami (Koji Takahashi) has found that cells derived from tissue matter collected from Godzilla’s previous appearance (in Return of Godzilla aka Godzilla 1985) make possible unlimited bioengineering miracles. Shiragami is working with a Saudi concern to make the Arabian desert fertile; another research effort seeks a biological defense against radiation (?).  Unfortunately, a rogue corporation called Bio-Major is attacking its competition. The Arabian concern is bombed, and Shiragami’s scientist daughter Erika (Yasuko Sawaguchi) killed.

Five years later, Godzilla is once again on the prowl. Shiragami initially refuses to come out of retirement to help cultivate a biotech germ to kill the fearsome beast. He has instead broken his own rules of bio-ethics, by combining a rose plant with cells from Erika. The plant carries her spirit, and Shiragami can feel her presence.

A pair of younger scientists comment on the ethics of what follows: Shiragami not only helps develop an anti-Godzilla virus, but concocts a giant plant mutation to combat Godzilla directly. ‘Biollante’ combines Godzilla cells and plant characteristics with a dash of Erika, shaken not stirred. A massive anti-Godzilla military force has been idle since the last attack. It now springs into action, with a fancy command center and two super-duper aerial attack vehicles, ‘Super-X’ and ‘Super-X 2.’ In command is the young but determined Sho Kuroki (Masanobu Takashima). Daredevil Colonel Goro Gondo (Toru Minegishi) joins the struggle, and shoots it out with Bio-Major’s sinister assassin. When Godzilla comes ashore in Osaka, Goro takes charge of an elite squad chosen to shoot hand-held serum injection grenades into the monster’s bloodstream.

If that’s not enough, Godzilla vs. Biollante introduces the psychic Miki Saegusa (Megumi Odaka), who has a mental connection with Godzilla (local phone charges may apply). Spending the movie in a rather attractive trance, young Miki locates the beast, and empathizes with its psychological moods. At one point she tries to tame Godzilla’s temper with something akin to a Vulcan Mind Meld; he responds with a psychic Whammy that sends her to the hospital.

We’re told that director Kazuki Ômori received carte blanche to revitalize the Godzilla franchise, which was losing its box office punch in Japan. Ômori added spy chases and gun violence, packing the story with cartoonish action and incident. The first two reels confuse us with at least ten logos and nameplates of corporate entities, all fighting each other for those precious scales shed by Godzilla during his last attack. Almost as confusing are the ethical explanations for Dr. Shiragami’s bio-mutation projects. When buttonholed on his questionable activities, he just shouts back “You don’t understand science!”  We don’t mind — Shiragami’s irrational mix ‘n’ match, shake ‘n’ bake science confects an awesome vegetable colossus, a formidable sparring partner for Big G.

Director Ômori must have realized that no Japanese Kaiju epic could do without squads of Japan Defense Force footsoldiers taking potshots at Godzilla with conventional weapons — that never accomplish anything. Ômori brings back some ray cannon from an earlier movie, and introduces two new ‘Super-X’ weapons that roll like tanks, fly in the air, and dive underwater … they’re little  Atragons with diamond ‘ray absorbers’ in their noses. Like the Markalites of  The Mysterians, Super-X collects Godzilla’s fiery breath, multiplies it, and shoots it right back at ‘im.

Breaking from Toho’s standard for Kaiju direction, this monster bash liberates the camera. Godzilla’s fight with a flotilla of ships is filmed partly from above, as his heat rays blast the ocean with spray-explosions. Later on Godzilla stomps ashore at Osaka to fight a Super-X craft. It ducks behind a line of skyscrapers, evading the blasts of fiery breath. Goro Gondo’s team shoots grenades that drill into Godzilla’s flesh to release an infectious serum.

The lively direction makes the difference — each new shot is another bundle of fire, heat rays, explosions and more visual effects. Improved lighting adds strong pictorial values, with clouds of smoke and mist that enhance the illusion of depth and scale. It’s too bad that the show saw no American theatrical distribution — it has unlimited appeal for kids and infantile adults that dote on epic destruction and explosive havoc. For ‘Boom Bash Crash’ action, Godzilla vs. Biollante scores a 9.3 on the Milius Meter.

The reveal of Biollante kicks this Kaiju entry into a new realm of fantasy. A tilt up from a dock, with eerie spectral lighting, reveals a colossal plant stalk topped by a giant rose. It’s a truly surreal sight. Tentacle-like root appendages snake under the water. Inside the center of the rose is a kind of toothed mouth. We’re curious to know the fairy tale logic in this thing, if any. Does it look as if it might contain the spirit of a murdered woman?

Biollante quickly falls victim to Godzilla’s atomic attack, falling to flinders like a giant Triffid taking a bath in sea water. But thanks to the regenerative powers of those top-grade Godzilla cells, it makes a comeback as Biollante Mark II, a vastly toughened battle-plant. The Erika influence is back-burnered behind a massive root system of snaking serpent mouths, and rigid stalks that can pierce Godzilla like spears. No more giant rose — in its place is a toothed lizard snout, a nastier cousin of  Audrey Jr., the Mean Green Mother from Outer Space.

The poetic flower-thing distinguishes this show from Toho’s other Kaiju before and since. The ‘spiritual’ story thread culminates in a heaven-directed fountain of sparkles, with a superimposed portrait of the fallen Erika. It’s a non-literal sentimental mirage: special effects create the ethereal part of the story, almost unaided. Dr. Shiragami would seem to want to make Erika immortal. He isn’t all that lovable, and we don’t see enough of Erika to become attached to her memory. Yet the beauty of that giant rose visual stirs something elemental. … is Biollante Mark I a surreal flower power ‘Nature / Love’ symbol?

The energetic Godzilla vs. Biollante rushes too hard to jam in what must have been a long list of must-haves from the corporate Godzilla playbook: disco-like music, a pop star, teenage girl fantasy, a rough-tough hero to make a super-cool sacrifice. On his way out, he offers a cheerfully defiant Dirty Harry- like dialogue zinger:

Most monster romps leave us wishing for more. This one leaves us wishing for a little less. The action is so concentrated that adults may reach their fill of whiz-bang mayhem long before the fade-out. After the Kaiju issues are resolved, the spy plot is still wrapping up loose ends with more killings. But we’ll watch Godzilla vs. Biollante again just to catch the chill of that Dali-esque super-rose with a giant heart beating in its thorny breast.

Some Random Godzilla vs. Biollante Notes:

This redesigned Godzilla is first seen in some shots recycled from Return of Godzilla, walking on the rim of an erupting volcano. Side angles give Big G something of a facial snarl, that remind us of Clint Eastwood. The only design aspect that feels weak is his loosely hinged, flapping jaw. Forget Shiragami’s virus, Godzilla has come down with a serious case of  Gorgo Hinge Jaw Syndrome.

Biollante sometimes shoots acid, like the critters in the popular Alien franchise. It also vomits ‘energy dust,’ Linda Blair-style. The ‘psychic connection’ business with Miki extends to a scene of Kindergartners making pictures of Godzilla with crayons. It’s blatant lift from the Spielberg  flying saucer movie, in which alien influence inspired creative people to draw images of Devil’s Tower, Wyoming.

‘I knew those shots looked familiar …’  70 minutes into the movie, we see a few cuts of monster rampage that Tim Burton later edited into his  Mars Attacks. Martians love Godzilla too.

Toho Kaiju always stress teamwork. Just injecting Godzilla with the virus isn’t enough … the army must employ an ‘M-6000 Thunder Control’ system to raise Godzilla’s body temperature to make the virus multiply: “Oh!  We forgot that Godzilla is cold-blooded!”

The handsome young hero scientist continues to politely disagree with the crazy older scientist, the guy who cross-breeds a giant freak Kaiju with his own daughter. No moral agreement is reached, but it’s nice that somebody’s debating something here.

Genre critics relate the clairvoyant Miki character to the miniature Shobijin twins (The ‘Peanuts’) in the original  Mothra — their ESP allows them to tell us things about the monsters that the film doesn’t show. But Miki really functions exactly like Janet Munro’s psychic teenager in the imaginative 1958  The Trollenberg Terror, who shares ESP vibes with globby invaders from outer space. The Miki character is retained for further franchise installments. What a clever way to augment Godzilla’s ‘girl-teen’ appeal:

When in doubt, rely on Walt Disney Blue Fairy Pixie Dust. The spirit of Erika ascends to heaven, and Godzilla is showered with swirling sparkles. It may be crude, but it beats more bombs and explosions. The same kind of Pixie magic will be utilized when Mothra comes back in later 1990s Godzilla sequels, painting the skies with rainbow dust. Did Dr. Shiragami re-clone Mothra with DNA from Disney’s Tinker Bell?

We’re dazzled by Godzilla vs. Biollante’s visual effects, which go beyond easily-analyzed photochemical methods. Digital effects were just beginning to make their mark; 1989 was the ‘big shift’ year with James Cameron’s The Abyss.  This show has the best of both worlds. All the scenes were filmed with traditional stage effects, bombarding actors in elaborate costumes with smoke and fire. We’re told that Godzilla’s back plates in this film are activated with lights from within, instead of overlaid animation. We think that digital compositing layers on more lighting effects, animated rays, etc.; the flexibility of digital enhances the appearance of heat blasts, water explosions, things that glow.

We’re told that larger-format VistaVision cameras were employed for some shots, a terrific choice … when matte composites are reduced back to normal 35mm, the images look less-degraded. Using VistaVision in a vertical format, in a ‘tall’ aspect ratio, could explain how some very effective ’tilt-up’ shots were done — angles of people watching in the foreground, that tilt-up to frame Biollante or Godzilla in the distance. The composite could have been perfected as a tall static image, and then an optical printer (or more digital manipulation?) could scan the frame with an animated tilt move. It’s a guess … for all we know, an old issue of  Cinefex explains the whole thing differently.

The Criterion Collection’s 4K Ultra HD + Blu-ray of Godzilla vs. Biollante 4K is a new 4K digital restoration with a 5.0 surround DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack; it should bring a whole lotta rumble-rama to Home Video theaters. I haven’t seen the earlier Blu-ray for comparison. As is the drill with 4K discs, all the video extras are on the second Blu-ray.

The picture is exceedingly sharp, clear and colorful; the extra resolution and contrast do wonders with the nighttime combat scenes. Biollante charges forth in the darkness, and we can finally appreciate the puppeteering coordination needed to manipulate its twenty or so sundry moving parts, appendages, tentacles. There’s more apparent control than we saw with King Ghidorah. We assume it was intentional for his three heads to flail about about willy-nilly.

The main new theme sounds like an attempt to capture a John Williams ‘Superman’ vibe; fans will like the reprises of classic Godzilla themes, including our favorite, jaunty ‘Navy March’ theme.

Producer Curtis Tsui took on the package for this one, and has found some older making-of filmmaker interview pieces that fans will like. One is 50 minutes long. American collectors have seen some of these videos, that feature abundant behind-the-scenes material, on Japanese discs not subtitled for the English language.

Of special note is an effects outtakes reel, which has some interesting unused stop-motion effects takes for the battle sequence. Unfortunately, it does not include a shot featured in an old issue of Video Watchdog, that we really wanted to be in the movie, a scene of Godzilla’s exit surrounded by magical flowers.

We see two basic TV spots and a selection of trailers, a nine-minute Godzilla history lesson and numerous items of shorter length. The ‘international’ trailer has badly-dubbed English dialogue. That’s something that needs mention: Criterion’s feature presentation includes no English-language dub track. Get ready to read subtitles, Gaijin.

Jim Cirronella’s folder insert essay lays out a worthy commonsense appreciation of the film. But we reserve the right to roll our eyes at Toho’s parting homily, spoken over a vast landscape of death and destruction: “Godzilla and Biollante aren’t monsters. It’s the unscrupulous scientists who create them that are monsters.”

Reviewed by Glenn Erickson

Godzilla vs. Biollante 4K
4K Ultra HD + Blu-ray rates:
Movie: Good +
Video: Excellent
Sound: Excellent Japanese audio only
Supplements:
Audio commentary with Samm Deighan
Making-of program from 1993 with director Kazuki Ômori and special-effects director Koichi Kawakita (1993)
Featurette on the Biollante and Super X2 design concepts (1993)
Deleted special effects
TV spots and trailers
Insert folder with poster plus essay by Jim Cirronella.
Deaf and Hearing-impaired Friendly? YES; Subtitles: English (feature only)
Packaging: One 4K Ultra-HD disc and one Blu-ray disc in Keep case
Reviewed: March 16, 2025
(7295biol)

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